The View - London's Air Ambulance supporter magazine

TheView Registered charity number 801013

London’s Air Ambulance Supporters’ Magazine

Issue 4 - 2017

Saving lives in London every day, thanks to your support

Welcome from our new CEO Pride of Britain award Our role in major incidents Meet our Supporter Heroes

In this issue Welcome from our new CEO

3

News and achievements

4

Our patients - Chloe’s story

6

Marathon des Sables

7

Our role - major incidents

8

Our team - responding to the London Bridge attack

9

Our Supporter Heroes

10

Please help spread the word about our life-saving work by passing this magazine on once you’ve finished reading it. You’ll be helping to raise awareness of London’s Air Ambulance in your local community.

You can also read The View online at londonsairambulance.co.uk/theview

Mission Map 76

In 2016 our advanced trauma doctors and paramedics treated

1864 PATIENTS

54 32

64 44

Brent

Camden

45

70

59

Hillingdon

Road Traffic Collisions Stabbings & Shootings Falls from Height Other (including rail incidents, industrial accidents & drownings)

Ealing Hammersmith & Fulham

18

123 40 41

Westminster

City Of London

86

45 28

Kensington & Chelsea

Hounslow

35

45

Wandsworth

117

58 Lambeth

Richmond

24

20

56

Redbridge

Hackney

97

Southwark

79

Tower Hamlets

74 73

Sutton

79

Croydon

Havering

Barking & Dagenham

Greenwich

35

Lewisham

Bexley

22 46

19

45 60

Newham

Merton

Kingston

2

Waltham Forest

Haringey

Islington

MECHANISM OF INJURY 606 500 417 341

Barnet

Harrow

55

Enfield

Bromley

Outside London

e m o Welc Welcome to the latest issue of The View magazine - my first as CEO of London’s Air Ambulance. It is a great privilege to be part of this wonderful organisation, and I know I share that feeling with all our fantastic supporters who give so much to the charity. It is thanks to you that we are able to deliver this life-saving service.

This charity was built on community spirit; it’s a service funded by the people of London for the people of London and that’s something that compelled me to apply to join the fantastic team.

on average five of these people a day. We are here, day or night, to deliver the hospital to these patients’ sides quickly, so that they have the best chance possible to return to the life they had before, or as close to that as is humanly possible.

That is why spreading the charity message is so important. Without our supporters doing so and encouraging others to donate their time or money, we couldn’t be there to intervene and help save lives and enhance outcomes for these people. Whilst eight out of ten people have heard of the London’s Air Ambulance service around two thirds of people in London are not sure or don’t believe that London’s Air Ambulance is a charity. This is a massive hurdle to overcome as we try to gain more support and I can’t thank you enough for helping us to continue to raise awareness.

Who am I? I’m an ex City trader, and have worked in the charity sector for the past eight years, helping to fund over 250 charities and social enterprises along the way. Why apply? This simply is my dream role - I feel that my 28 years’ experience of moving money around has finally found its true purpose. What have I learned so far? The power of saying “thank you” – I would like my time here to be defined by how we thank and engage with our supporters, our colleagues, our volunteers and our partners. Together, we are London’s Air Ambulance.

We would like to extend a special thanks to our regular supporters – monthly donors and Lottery players. You are a group over 60,000, which continues to grow, and collectively you help us raise more than half of our annual voluntary income. Your sustained support allows us to plan ahead to maintain the life-saving service we provide to the 10 million people who live, work and travel in London every day.

Whilst we have much to celebrate this year, including our win at the ‘Pride of Britain’ awards, the launch of an enhanced duty crew model and a year of the second helicopter being operational; London has also sadly been faced with some dreadful events, all of which our amazing teams have helped deliver the emergency medical response to. On behalf of the charity I would like to pass on my deepest condolences and thoughts to all who have been affected by these tragedies.

So thank you to all our supporters for everything you do. I hope you enjoy reading about the year just gone and seeing the impact you have had on the lives of the people we help. We are all grateful to you for your ongoing backing and couldn’t do this without you.

It is worth remembering that every one of our patients have gone through similar life-changing injuries as those who have been involved in a major incident. Their lives have been turned upside down in a matter of seconds. We treat

All content © London’s Air Ambulance

Jonathan Jenkins Chief Executive Officer London’s Air Ambulance

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Supp po p orrt Lond on’s Air Am bula nce

Adva nced Traum Teama

d n a d s n a w e s N New London’s Air Air National Ambulance wins Ambulance Week

Wembley hears our HELIMED We have launched anthanks innovative, educational message, to resource as part of our charity’s schools’ outreach programme.partnership Saracens’

Pride of Britain award

Taking place from 19-25th September In October we were the proud recipients of a Pride this year, 2016 National of Britain Award, winning in ‘the Emergency Services’ Air Ambulance category for our medical team’s work in helping to save Week unites the life of 24 year old cyclist Victoria. communities across thehitUK Victoria was by a lorry while commuting to work.

Her pelvistheir was so badly crushed, it was feared she would behind local not ambulance survive. Our medical team’s use of a pioneering air balloon procedure – known as REBOA (Resuscitative charities.

The resource is an interactive App HELIMED, designed to We kicked our newof three year partnership with inspire a newoff generation enthusiastic, technologically Saracens at people Derby to Day on Saturday 8th April 2017. skilled young pursue STEM (Science, Technology, We were able spread our subjects charity message to more Engineering andtoMathematics) than 71,000 people and later careers.

Theygathered could be at theWembley for the rugby match between and Harlequins.

Advanced Trauma teams Saracens of the future! out London's Air interview with one of our Players The day carry started with an on-pitch Ambulance missions, taking on off thehis bike and run over patients, Yair, who was knocked roles of a London’s Air Ambulance as he cycled home. Without our supporters, Yair would not Doctor, Paramedic and from Pilot our to advanced trauma team have received treatment complete four life-saving and he may not be here today. missions, all in a race against time.pre-match The HELIMED app was The programme continued with a fly over from developed by Milo Creative our pilots to say thank you to in Saracens, Allianz and all those partnership science who supportwith us. Our London’s Air Ambulance family - made education Centredoctors, of up of pilots,centre paramedics, charity staff and Yair’s the Cell. children and wife - then took to the pitch with a banner

Endovascular Balloon Occlusion of the Aorta) - prevented her from to death at the roadside.

Our teamsbleeding of dedicated volunteers will be It was onlyatthe second time the REBOA procedure had collecting major been carried out on the roadside and Victoria London train stations, such as Paddington and was the second patient to survive it. week. If you see them do Waterloo throughout the whole say hello or stop by for a chat and pop some change into The buckets. prestigious Britain award their It is aPride great of opportunity for the recognised charity to raise the work of our team asand wellobtain as the doctors funds, increase awareness more public at support.

The Royal London Hospital,Week partwe of will Barts During National Air Ambulance alsoHealth be selling NHS Trust. spent two years developing our brand newThe funteam G-LNDN helicopter pin badges.

They’ll theavailable ground-breaking tovarious be used out of be at collection procedure locations and sites across hospital - a worldSeptember. first - andPlease now continues to save London throughout wear your helicopter livespride across with and the helpcapital. save lives in London.

displaying charity’san logo and messaging.

HELIMEDour provides insightful look at the work Before match, of the the charity forpledges anyone.to support London’s Air Ambulance broadcast Download were the free App to the stadium on digital screens, including footage now to test yourfrom Saracens’ recent visit to our helipad. skills.

To watch Yair’s story online type this link in your web browser... bit.ly/YairsVideo

We looking people to join our volunteer Fromare L toalways R: Dr Samy Sadek,for presenter Richard Hammond, presenterfamily, whether you can spare a few hours a month or wouldSam like Philip Schofield, ex-patient Vicky, singer Katherine Jenkins, paramedic to do something every week, we’d love to hear from you.

Margetts, Dr Simon Walsh, paramedic Bill Leaning, paramedic Dean Bateman.

Please contact Hayley Rainey on 020 3023 3312 or email volunteer@londonsairamubulance.co.uk for more information.

YOUR SECOND HELICOPTER TOOK FLIGHT In January 2016 your second helicopter became operational in London, thanks to the fantastic support that we received from right across the spectrum in London, not least from readers of The View, who generously supported the ‘Your London, Your Helicopter’ campaign.

Without the commitment of our supporters we could not have succeeded in acquiring the second aircraft for the Capital.

Our new helicopter, registered as G-LNDN, has now been successfully integrated into the service. Having two helicopters available enables us to reach more patients by air, clearly the most efficient way to deliver our life-saving service.

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s t n e m e v e i d ach 28 years of saving lives goes digital Thanks to the relentless dedication of staff support from the London Ambulance Service and Barts Health NHS Trust and with the generosity of the public and a range of organisations, London’s Air Ambulance emerged stronger than ever and has now established itself as one of London’s most beloved charities and a vital part of London’s emergency infrastructure, respected across the world for its innovation and education in prehospital care.

In January 2017, we marked our 28th anniversary with the release of a digital timeline telling the story of the charity and how, if it wasn’t for a pioneering group of people and the generosity of the London public, the charity may not have existed at all. The timeline shows the highs and lows of the charity, including its battles against adversity – from financial struggles to doubts about its potential to save lives.

When the concept of the air ambulance was challenged, London’s Air Ambulance’s patients and their families were often the first to come to the service’s defence in the press, sharing their stories in a show of support.

Check out our timeline on the web at ‘londonsairambulance.co.uk/timeline’

New clinical delivery model We have enhanced our duty crew model with the appointment of 11 new consultant doctors, in order to ensure we are ready to deliver the future of advanced trauma care to London. Our charity is continually innovating ways to prevent unnecessary deaths from trauma, and procedures carried out before patients reach hospital are becoming more complex and challenging. From the autumn, a consultant will be present on most critical missions, alongside the duty crew including a senior doctor and paramedic, ensuring patients have the best possible care.

Schools inspired

by Helivan This year we launched our brand new Helivan which is decked out in London’s Air Ambulance branding and has a replica image of the interior of the aircraft in the back of the van. It will be used to transport demonstration equipment to educational talks and community events in London and to further engage communities with our work, helping to inspire children to pursue Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) careers. All the money to buy the van and to kit it out was raised by The Rotary Clubs in London. The London Rotarians raised an amazing £38,000. We are very grateful to them for helping us to inspire the next generation.

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d a o r s ’ Chloe very o c e r o t “I was run over by a lorry when cycling to a university lecture. When the wheel rolled back off my abdomen, I knew I was going to die if I didn’t get help VERY quickly.”

At the time of her accident in 2007, Chloe was in her fourth year of medical school.

She reflects with chilling clinical precision on what she believed might be the last minutes of her life: “I could hear sirens. I knew that my lung had collapsed and soon I wouldn’t be able to breathe.

I knew that my abdomen was filling with blood.

“The whole time I could not stop thinking about my mum. How terrifying it will be for her. I wanted to apologise to the driver but they wouldn’t let me. I felt guilty that he would have to live with this if I died.”

Chloe believes the speed at which London’s Air Ambulance arrived is what saved her and she feels phenomenally lucky to be alive.

“When London’s Air Ambulance arrived, it was a huge relief. Until then, everyone around me was scared and no one could help.

I had to be calm, and instructed

the man who called 999 for me on what injuries to report. When the helicopter landed, the doctor from London’s Air Ambulance took charge, putting a drain in my chest on the roadside to enable me to breathe and keep me alive on the way to the hospital. Then they took me to The Royal London by helicopter.”

“I was run over by a lorry when cycling to a university lecture. When the wheel rolled back off my abdomen, I knew I was going to die if I didn’t get help VERY quickly.”

Chloe

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s e l b a S s e d n o h t a Mar n earth” ace o r t o o f t s e h g u “The to

The police drove Chloe’s mum, dad and little brother from Oxford to London on blue lights. They believed Chloe might not live much longer and wanted to give her family an opportunity to say good bye. At the age of 21, Chloe might have become yet another cyclist to make the tragic headlines. Instead, she has gone on to become a doctor and is now helping to save lives as a trainee Anaesthetist at the very hospital where she was once offloaded from the charity’s only helicopter, battling for her life.

Next year Chloe will be running the gruelling Marathon Des Sables for London’s Air Ambulance Charity alongside our CEO Jonathan Jenkins. Chloe has previously run the London Marathon for London’s Air Ambulance.

“I wouldn’t be alive if it wasn’t for London’s Air Ambulance. I can only do my best to give other people the same chance, both as a doctor and by fundraising for this life saving charity.”

The Marathon des Sables is a gruelling multi-stage adventure through a formidable landscape in one of the world’s most inhospitable climates of up to 50 degree heat.

What happens when you put a pilot, several doctors, a paramedic, an ex-patient, an ex-patient’s sister, a fire officer, the CEO and some supporters in a tent in the desert for a week, to compete in the “toughest footrace on earth?”

We don’t know, but we are about to find out!

A team of London’s Air Ambulance employees and supporters are attempting to complete the Marathon Des Sables in April 2018 - an epic 250km in 6 days, carrying their own supplies, in what Sir Ranulph Fiennes calls the hardest thing he has ever done.

CEO Jonathan Jenkins previously took part in the Marathon des Sables in 2016 and raised an incredible £17,000. He is hoping the team will raise even more this time.

If you are inspired to sponsor the team, please visit: justgiving.com/teams/laamds2018

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Our role in

s t n e d i c n i r o j Ma At London’s Air Ambulance we spend a considerable amount of time planning, training and preparing for major incidents. We treat patients with traumatic injuries similar to those sustained in major incidents daily and regularly attend incidents involving multiple casualties. This means we have a lot of exposure to large scale incidents. Therefore we can bring additional skills and expertise to support our emergency service colleagues in dealing with major incident responses at the frontline. We have responded to and helped co-ordinate the medical response to the majority of major incidents in the Capital since our inception 28 years ago – varying from train and tram crashes to terror attacks and fires.

bombings, the helicopter ferried 18 teams to scene and was also used to pick up and deliver more medical kit and equipment. We have five rapid response cars so these can also be used and at night will be our only mode of transport.

At the Grenfell Tower fire six doctors and two paramedics were deployed to scene during the night in cars, and two who lived nearby went by foot. When the helicopter came online at sunrise, it was then used to transport further teams to scene.

In a major incident our role changes somewhat; we become responsible for scene management and casualty clearance, as our medical teams are trained in rapid assessment and diagnosis. We work with our colleagues at the London Ambulance Service to ‘triage’ patients – a process for sorting injured people into groups based on their need for or likely benefit from medical treatment. Priority 1 patients, for example, will need treatment fast or they may die whereas Priority 3 patients would be able to wait longer. In a major incident, we also want to ensure that the injured are safe so we work with the ambulance, police and fire service to clear the area of casualties as safely as possible. In some instances, our medical team will also have to work with the fire service to ensure that extrication procedures will have minimal impact on the patient’s injuries.

In 2017 London’s Air Ambulance has attended the Westminster Bridge, London Bridge and Finsbury Park Mosque attacks and the Grenfell Tower fire. We form part of London’s emergency response, alongside our colleagues at the London Ambulance Service, Metropolitan Police and London Fire Brigade amongst many other agencies and hospitals.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with all those who have been affected by these devastating tragedies.

I would like to thank all of our teams who were involved in all these responses, whether directly or indirectly, and commend all the emergency services for their management of some highly complicated and dangerous scenes.”

Every major incident is different and we scrutinise our response to learn what we could do better and hone our processes, as we do after every mission, to ensure we deliver the best possible response should the unthinkable happen again. We aspire to deliver the same quality of care for individual patients at a major incident as any of our patients would get.

“We would also like to thank the members of the public, medical professionals and local businesses who showed courage and strength by rallying together to help in what must have been the most frightening ordeals.

London is a great city and we all stand together, especially in difficult times.”

While we only usually have one trauma team on duty for London at any time, in a major incident a pager alert is activated and multiple teams make their way to the helipad to be ready should they need to be deployed.

These teams respond in a voluntary capacity and we are always so proud of how many come forward to help – at the recent London Bridge attack nine teams made themselves available on a Saturday night.

In a major incident, the helicopter is usually not used to take patients to hospital, but to deliver teams to the scene as quickly as possible. During the 7th July 2005 terrorist

Dr Gareth Davies, Medical Director 8

e l fi o r P l a n o i t a r Ope ert b m a L is r h C r D

Dr Chris Lambert, 46, an emergency doctor with London’s Air Ambulance, was the first doctor on the scene following the atrocities at London Bridge. He spoke of “extraordinary” scenes as people ran the length of the bridge carrying badly injured casualties.

“There were a number of casualties brought across the bridge, each one carried by multiple people.

They were using whatever means they could.

“It’s an image, a memory, that will stay with me – that courage, and people performing CPR and doing everything they could to help.”

Dr Lambert was accompanied by Dr Michael Christian, and Tracy Porter, an emeritus paramedic from London Ambulance Service. They were one of six London’s Air Ambulance trauma teams deployed on the night.

He said: “On Saturday night the response was excellent. I was really impressed. We work every day with the London Ambulance Service. I felt there was a stepping up a gear. All the right procedures were put in place to get patients to safety as quickly as possible.

“We had some victims with knife wounds and some victims with more blunt injuries which you would get from contact with a van.” Dr Lambert said.

He instructed the first aiders to keep talking to the victims. “I told them: If the patient stops talking or becomes quiet, then please let me know. Then I can step in.”

“The main challenge in an incident like this for us is to shift the way we work. We are trained to work in a very detailed way with one patient. It’s that shift of approach to oversee a number of patients to make sure each one gets what they need.

“It’s an image, a memory, that will stay with me – that courage, and people performing CPR and doing everything they could to help.”

“The decision that was key was to grab people in whatever state they were in and take them to a place of safety. That meant that the patients I had in front of me were in quite a tight huddle. It’s easier to move between them.”

“We make sure the most unwell are stabilised. If we had a patient who was deteriorating, we could quickly do some simple interventions before they go to hospital.”

Dr Chris Lambert

He added: “One of the things I found moving from relatives of victims is this message of being determined not to hate these people, but respond with love.

I felt I experienced that on the night.

Just reflecting on it on a personal level, if we as a country can respond by just continuing to show love then, hopefully the ideology behind these attacks can’t win.”

At one point, they had to move to another area amid fears they were in danger. He said the presence of the police and security forces meant he felt “very well protected and very safe”.

Article reprinted with kind permission of Ross Lydall, Evening Standard

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r e t r o p p u S r u O Thank you to Samantha & Alex Bentley who took part in the Devizes to Westminster Canoe Race in April 2017 and raised over £1,000 for London’s Air Ambulance.

Marie Lebrec has been a remarkable supporter of the charity over the past 3 yrs since her sister, Victoria, was critically injured in a cycling accident. She has completed multiple marathons in exotic locations and has raised over £10,000 for the charity.

Thank you to Rita Hipgrave from TMD Technologies who did a wingwalk and raised £700.

The Secura team completed the Three Peaks Challenge in June. The team of five braved wind and torrential rain to reach all three peaks in 24 hours. They raised £14,500 for the charity and money is still being raised.

We have been overwhelmed by the fundraising efforts of individual members of London Freemasons across the capital, who raised over £2.1 million in two years, helping us get the second helicopter operational.

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s e o r He Thank you to Ronald Quantock’s family and friends who collectively made a generous donation after he passed away.

His brother, Gerald Quantock, also entered our raffle, in memory of his brother and won the top £3,000 prize.

As a valued corporate partner, we wanted to take the opportunity to thank all of the staff at Foxtons for their amazing support through Payroll Giving. Around 30% of employees at Foxtons have signed up to payroll giving which far exceeds the national average and is testament to their ongoing commitment and all round support.

A huge thank you to campaigning group 38 Degrees and its members for donating a total of £17, 440 following the Westminster attack.

We rely on the support of our volunteers all year round and without their dedication there are many things that we wouldn’t be able to do to raise the vital funds needed for the charity. To recognise their support and to say a big thank you for everything that they do, we held our first ‘Volunteer Thank You and Recognition Event’ during Volunteers week in June.

The fantastic staff at ICAP generated £8.2 million globally on their 2016 Charity Day, supported by a variety of famous faces. Their donation to London’s Air Ambulance is funding our fleet of rapid response cars for the next three years.

We are very grateful to Crystal Palace FC for their continued support. In April, we collected at the home game with Leicester City and raised £530. Thanks also to our volunteers for their help on the day.

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£

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Can you help us? £

Could you spare a few hours to volunteer? £ you Perhaps could make a £ monthly donation?

Perhaps you could join our £ £ weekly lottery?

£

£

£

There are many ways you can support us...

£

Could you£ and your friends start a local Fundraising Group?

Do you work for a company where you could nominate us for charity of the year?

£

£

Perhaps you could consider leaving a gift to us in your Will? £

£

Could you take on a personal challenge and raise funds for us?

Could you place a box of pin badges in your local pub or corner shop? £

Could you help us raise awareness through friends and social media?

Whatever way you choose to support us, every penny and every hour you donate will help us be there when the people of London need us most.

If you would like to find out more about how you can get involved, please call Supporter Care on 020 3023 3319 or email supportercare@londonsairambulance.co.uk @LDNairamb London’s Air Ambulance Visit londonsairambulance.co.uk Registered Charity London’s Air Ambulance is the charity that delivers an advanced trauma team to critically injured people in London. Registered Charity Number 801013.